Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft
Subject: Re: 6x10A Pulsar dimmers  What size mains cable??
References:  <[email protected]> 
"Bob Nixon"  writes:

> Sorry if I have confused " THE great Frank Wood "   Questor's geru     :-)
> sorry for that could not resist
> 
> Dimmer   = PULSAR
>  6  = Channels    and 2  sockets per channel (12 per unit)
> Sockets  = 15A
> 10A = max load per channel
> 
> My question is or was "What logically and acceptable should these units be
> wired in
> 
> the 6 x 10A =  60A  per Dimmer x 4 = 240A  TOTAL usable dimmer power
> we have 40,000watts TOTAL lantern power if ALL @ FULL UP
> we have 8 x T/Spots at 1K each and 4 x 1K Par 64s  = 12,000w = 52.1 A if all
> are on 0ne dimmer unit  there physical placement to the stage are thus that
> they would never (except is possible) to be all on one dimmer
> all the other lanterns are 500w or 650w
> 
> We wish to tidy up our not so good wiring but,  Do we have to assume that
> 60A would be possible, (but 80% never) to be placed on each dimmer should we
> fit    63A CEE17  on 10mm cable and  plugs and sockets or as our normal load
> would be 32A     (we fuse our 3 phase power (100A per phase incoming) down
> to 30A wired fuse per dimmer) We never blow fuses at this level    But as we
> could in theory load to 60A , or do we  work on a divesity factor and    use
> the more flexible 6mm,  Cable and 32A ( good quality but nearly 66% cheaper
> than 63A sockets
> 
> one electrician LX Hirer says 63A etc and the other 32A etc

Are you powering those dimmers from three phase or single phase per 
dimmer?

When you have 6 channels each 10 amperes connected to a single 
phase feed, you get maximum 60A single phase power need. 
For connecting this you will need 63A connector. 
Because your house has three phase power, you need to distribute
the power so that three of those dimmers each get their 
power from their own phase.

If your six channel dimmer is wired for three phase power input, 
this kind of dimmers are internally wired so that each phase 
gets two of those 10 ampere channels. This means that 
feeding one six channel 10 ampere per channel dimmer 
from three phase power takes maximum 20 ampreres per 
phase. You can wire this kind of dimmer nicely with 
32 amprere connector and wiring. This is the best dimmer 
powering arrangement in most cases.


-- 
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web links and documents at 
http://www.epanorama.net/